‘Ring of FHIR’ event focuses on critical information standards

Over 130 people are gathering in Auckland today to take part in a symposium and ‘Connectathon’ being run by Health New Zealand | Te Whatu Ora, Health Information Standards Organisation (HISO) and HL7 New Zealand. The event, which is fully subscribed, is running in parallel to a companion event in Australia.

Gerard Keenan, Programme Director of the Hira Programme at Health New Zealand says the symposium and Connectathon are for health software developers, service designers, clinicians and everyone else working for an interoperable and unified health system.

“At today’s symposium, digital health leaders in New Zealand, Australia and the Pacific are talking about the importance of using the same standards when using and exchanging health information."

Alastair Kenworthy, Group Manager Data and Digital Standards at Health New Zealand says standardisation with FHIR®, SNOMED-CT and the International Patient Summary is critical for the digital health ecosystem being built.

“Our experts will explore models for increased collaboration across the Pacific region and focus on improved health equity through digital transformation. We’re very pleased to welcome participants from the Tihi Hauora workshop at last year’s Digital Health Week and visitors from the Cook Islands.”

The Connectathon runs on the following two days – 21 and 22 March. HL7 New Zealand Chair and Health New Zealand interoperability expert John Carter says New Zealand’s Connectathon will continue the work that began at the “IPS-athon” held at HiNZ Digital Health Week 2023, to adapt the International Patient Summary (IPS) to our unique cultural and health system settings and build a New Zealand Patient Summary.

“Besides the patient summary track, participants from government and industry can choose other topics such as developing product integrations with Hira application programming interfaces (APIs) or developing interactive applications with FHIR questionnaires. There’s also an education track that will explore the FHIR New Zealand base implementation guide.”

Outcomes from the Connectathon will be featured on Health New Zealand’s Hira webpages.

Future Connectathons are also being planned, and details will be available over coming months.

Explanation of terms

The FHIR (Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources) standard is a set of rules and specifications for exchanging electronic healthcare data. It is designed to be flexible and adaptable for use in various settings and with different healthcare information systems.
SNOMED CT is a clinical terminology standard, which puts a code and name to all health conditions, situations and interventions.
APIs enable two or more computer programs to communicate with each other using a set of definitions and protocols.